“All people see are the antics behind the bench, but we see what kind of guy he is, how he’s always supporting us, how he’s never negative,” McGinn said. “We want to play for a guy like that. It shows in how hard and consistent we’ve been all year. We want to make him proud and we want to make the guys in the room proud, too.”

Sounds like Roy is the ideal kind of father-figure to play for. After all, Roy put many years coaching in the QMJHL with the Quebec Remparts and being that sort of supportive coach is needed at that level.

Add in the fact Avs captain Gabriel Landeskog said he “loved” that they pulled the goalie with as much time left as they did and you’ve got a team that will go all out for you.

Who knew that being an aggressively supportive guy would work in the NHL? Apparently Joe Sakic did when he brought him to Denver.

You can call it a Gutsy tactic, however if I’m a player on that team, I’d wonder why my coach has so little confidence in us to score 5 on 5?

mcbrdmichael - Apr 19, 2014 at 1:06 PM

Maybe it’s because the Avs had basically played for 57 minutes at 5 on 5 and were still trailing by a goal. The tactic has been used many times this year and has proven pretty successful. The Avs seem to be pretty comfortable with skating 6 on 5 and always create a lot of pressure on the opponent’s defense.

Roy pulled the goalie for 5 minutes against Boston earlier and that was amazing to watch. Av’s didn’t score, but neither did Boston w the empty net!

joey4id - Apr 19, 2014 at 1:11 PM

For sure they would.

joey4id – Apr 18, 2014 at 9:47 AM
Great game! The Avs are for real. Roy has them running on all cylinders, and demonstrated complete confidence in his team by pulling the goalie with 3:01 left in the 3rd period. I’m sure they boys were high fiving Roy after the game. Great time to be an Avs fan. Go Avs!

Hope the Wild aren’t feeling the way I have felt for the last couple days. They are the better team and SHOULD win. But after that incredibly deflating loss, I have very little confidence that Yeo can get his crew more fired up and believing in themselves than Roy will with his boys. That’s not a shot at Yeo, more a VERY reluctant compliment to the Avs bench boss.
I just don’t have a good feeling after feeling great throughout most of that last game.

I think you’re in for a fun night, Nico… Yeah–losing is never fun…but I came away from that game thinking that a game that could benefit the Wild–big picture–as the playoffs roll on…

Not discouraged at all. 5-1 Av’s? Yeah–that would have brought me to the ledge. That second period showed us a glimmer of what this team can do–and once they start believing…watch the phluck out…

peopletrains - Apr 19, 2014 at 1:30 PM

Quit saying pulling the goalie was gutsy and paid off. They were a foot away from it being 5-3 and they scored the game tying goal with 13 seconds left when any other coach would’ve had the goalie out. His move at 3 minutes had zero effect on the game or the Avs winning.

19to77 - Apr 19, 2014 at 3:30 PM

Y’know, except for the part where they scored the tying goal with the goalie pulled, yeah. Didn’t matter at all.

peopletrains - Apr 21, 2014 at 12:30 PM

Wow. Ever hear of something called reading comprehension? The game-tying goal was not scored until 13.4 seconds were left, a time in the game when EVERY COACH IN THE NHL WOULD HAVE THE GOALIE PULLED. The media is calling it a gutsy move when it took place at 3 minutes, not a minute or less. The only thing that happened during the unconventional timeframe of pulling the goalie (between 3:00 and ~1:30 remaining) was the Avs almost going down two goals.